Dixville Notch - Cohos Section Hiking Backpack

A Section Hiking Adventure 

Section #6, August/September 2014

Dixville Notch is known for it's jagged cliffs, flume & waterfall, as well as Table Rock, a lofty outlook over the narrow notch and The Balsams Resort, located across the street. As our group hiked farther and farther away from home (and closer to finishing in Canada), we decide to make this section into a 3-day backpack in two groups (as North and South bounders) with a key swap in the middle. Each member kept one car key for themselves, and gave an an extra key to one person in the other group before departing. By driving each other's cars from our pre-hike campground to either ends of the hike, we were able to hike our sections towards one another, exchange the duplicate keys as we passed each other in the middle of the backpack, and continue on to our respective cars, without the need of car swapping at the end.

Friday night we met up at a Big Rock Campground in North Stratford, NH, which was about a close as we could get to a "middle" location for both north and south-bound group. We had 10 people in all so we split into 2 groups of 5. I took the Southbound group north to Coleman State Park for the beginning of our section, while Mike drove south to start where we last left off on Nash Stream Road.

Coleman State Park was a lovely place, and not all that full despite the long Labor Day Weekend. It has a campground, a few lakes to boat, paddle and swim in, a nice bath house and hiking trails all around - and the Cohos goes right through it! Our group made quick work of the 5 mi hike up to the Panorama Shelter, which was our intended place to camp. The views here were lovely but it was so early we decided to have lunch here carry on to Dixville Notch /RT 26 road crossing, where we had spotted an extra car on our way.

Panaomara lunch spot

Dixville viewpoint

 We soon found ourselves at the Notch looking south at the jagged cliffs with windmills turning behind it on Dixville Peak. We had a few good views of teh Balsams along the way and had a look at Dixville Flume, Whittemore Picnic area and Huntington Falls. A few hardy settlers lived in Dixville Notch long ago and their graves still stand as a reminder of their struggle to survive and  how easy we have it these days.

Notch info sign

Gravestones of the early settlers of Dixville Notch

It was only 4pm and we had the time, so up we went, collecting water and finding a camp spot close to Table Rock itself. The views from Table Rock are lovely and I can see why this is such a popular destination for those visiting the notch. There are 3 different trails that take you up, 2 of which are easy and one is quite steep. The "table" itself is a more like a narrow island that juts out into the notch lending to a very airy feeling, not for the squeamish of heights and edges. The light was perfect and with hardly a breeze, we languished on the ledge, cooking dinner and watching as the sun set behind mountains to our west in Vermont. Chris brought out the cheese the cracker appetizers and everything was good!

The Balsams Resort (closed, planned re-opening in the coming years)

Table Rock

Dinner on Table Rock

View of Notch form Table Rock

The next morning we woke to a light rain shower. Chris and I set up a tarp quickly and saved our group a dry spot to commune for breakfast. Once we were packed up to go, the showers subsided and off we went towards Dixville Peak. We hoped to come across our other half soon and we were wondering how their north-bound trip was going.

Hike/Skiing on Dixville Peak

We hiked past Dixville ski area, stopping to checkout the surroundings and now closed ski hill. The map didn't show anew Dixville Pk bypass, so while we tried heading up to the summit in the clouds and fog, we felt we were off trail and headed down on the CT  where the other half of our group had just stopped for a rest. We exchanged hiking stories, keys, notes and tips for the trails ahead while a group of ATV riders drove by up the road to the clouded in peak. After a brief interlude, we went our separate ways, excited about what lay ahead.

We continued on to Baldhead South Lean To - our intended place for camp. The trail was a slog, a little rough, muddy, but not too hard to find. Once again enjoyed a shelter lunch break, and with the break in the weather we carried on another 11 miles or so to our cars at the end. The trail beyond the shelter was even rougher, and beautiful with fields of wildflowers sometimes as high as our faces. Around 6pm we got to the end adn our cars. We dumped our tent and  slept at Old Hermit Shelter, just one mile south on the trail (we had visited this shelter in a rain storm in July). This turned out to be a brilliant plan...while it didn't rain  from that point on, we enjoyed a new, clean shelter with water nearby and plenty of space to spread out, cook and sleep in. Chris once again thrilled us all with his tomato and onion salad appetizer, cheese and crackers too. We had come a long way so it was well deserved.

 

The following morning we summited Sugarloaf, and although the weather-gods weren't quite with us, we enjoyed a clouded in summit with the sun shining above us. To finish it off, we washed up & swam in Nash Stream, ate a big lunch at the Woodstock Inn and enjoyed some local ice cream too.

Next summer, we hope to finish up or Cohos adventure by hiking the last 50+/- miles to Canada!

All pics from this trip are on my Flickr page